


City of Stars

by Biana_Delacroix



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst, Celebrity AU, F/M, Fluff, La La Land AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 20:31:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9089599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Biana_Delacroix/pseuds/Biana_Delacroix
Summary: The city looks like a sea of stars, the same city where two young dreamers loved and lost each other. Maybe it's not too hard to find each other again.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [honestgrins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestgrins/gifts).



> For Morgan, who is absolutely lovely, I hope you had an amazing Christmas season, and a Happy New Year! 
> 
> Based on 'La La Land', the technicolour fever dream that left me in tears. If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough.

She’s all confidence as she strides into the small cafe, head held high but a sweet smile on her face. The girl behind the counter is bright and friendly, reminding her so much of herself circa five years ago, and it makes her heart ache for a reason she can’t really explain. Before she can even finish, a latte is slid in front of her, the cafe manager smiling widely.

“On the house Ms. Forbes.”

It’s an ego boost, Caroline can’t deny that. It’s even more of an ego boost to say, “Oh, I insist,” and be as gracious as the actresses who had come in when she was on the other side of the counter. Pay it forward and all that. The studio backlot was familiar no matter how things changed, but it was still strange to walk around it as a recognized actress rather than an unknown barista hoping to make it big. But that seemed like five decades ago rather than five years, and since she was at least a decade away from writing her memoirs, no one really knew the whole story.

Well, one person knew. But she hasn’t thought about him in a while.

**_xxx_ **

_“Hello Caroline.”_

_Caroline spun in surprise, not believing that Mr. Stuck-up-and-British had managed to find out where she worked. Although, she might have mentioned being a barista in the cafe on the Warner Brothers lot, but she didn_ _’t think he was actually paying attention._

_“What are you doing here?” she hissed. “How did you get past security?”_

_“Ran for it,” he said with a shrug. His grin was infectious no matter how crazy he probably was but Caroline couldn’t forget that he had been a bit of an ass to her at the Hollywood house party last night. She was dragged along by her housemates (and squeezed into a designer dress that Katherine had managed to wrangle from a modeling gig) and he’d been there, though she couldn’t figure out why. He wasn’t an actor or a musician — according to him, he was an artist. But he’d made some disparaging comment about baristas who wanted to be stars and she’d thrown her drink at him an gone off in a huff._

_Now, here he was._

_“Allow me to acquit myself,” he said quickly, sensing her hesitation._

_He wasn_ _’t going anywhere anytime soon, so Caroline steeled herself to endure his company when she got off her shift ten minutes later. They strolled past a shoot, giving them a wide berth as Klaus needled her for stories about her hopes and dreams. She’d assumed he was being condescending but he seemed genuinely interested in her._

_She told him the whole story, her need to get out of her small town, the pull of Los Angeles and the rush of being in front of a camera. It was a story shared by at least a few thousand perky blondes in this city but Klaus hung onto her every word._

_“You’ll make it sweetheart, mark my words.”_

_“Seriously, you don’t have to—”_

_“I mean it. You’re strong, beautiful, full of light. They’ll realize it soon enough.”_

**_xxx_ **

Tyler’s arm is heavy around her waist as they stroll the LA streets, tired after their dinner but not ready to call it a night just yet. Caroline smiles to herself, taking in the city she hadn’t been in for a few years now. New York is her home now but LA was where she’d gotten her break and she missed it a little, the warm nights, the dreams of young stars in the making.

“Wanna head back babe?” Tyler asks, pulling her closer.

Did she? She supposes that they probably should, even as a nagging voice in the back of her head tells her that she and Tyler do the physical part of a relationship really well but there’s not much more to it. On a whim, she follows the sound of live music and spies a small crowd milling outside a building close by and tugs Tyler towards them.

The building is a gallery and the music is the live band playing an exhibit opening. Caroline flashes her sunniest smile at Tyler and he reluctantly agrees to go in. It’s an upscale Hollywood crowd, everyone pretending to know a little more than they actually do. Tyler spies some associates from his firm and kisses Caroline on the cheek when she half heartedly waves him off. Better he find something to do while she wanders the place.

The artist being featured is being hailed as a modern Picasso, even if Caroline is too uncultured to properly appreciate it. She acknowledges that several people seem to be into it, but it’s not for her so she takes off down a hall into another room with fewer people. The gallery’s permanent pieces, she guesses.

Now _this_ is what she calls art.

The canvasses here are covered in dark blues and purples, hints of a lighter sky peeking above horizons. She can feel the warmth of Hollywood nights, see the sun rising from the hills, and in a moment she’s a young hopeful again, a glittering future ahead of her but no idea if it would ever come.

It came, but nothing she’d seen in the five years since matched the beauty of the dawn she saw in the painting in front of her. She would know, she was there.

**_xxx_ **

_“You should paint this,” Caroline said with a sigh, leaning back into Klaus’s embrace. His convertible was parked in a lookout point in the Hollywood hills and they sat on the hood, leaning into each other. The sun was just about to come up, the city lay out beneath them, lit up like a sea of stars._

_“I’d rather paint you,” Klaus said, pressing a kiss to her hair. They loved it up here, the sight of their first date, first kiss. Up here they could dream about starring roles and future galleries and not bother with the possibility that any of their dreams couldn’t come true. Up here they had each other, and it was all they needed._

**_xxx_ **

Caroline furiously wipes at her eyes, trying to stop the tears that threatened to fall. She’s older, wiser, she isn’t the same girl that felt the sting of heartbreak, not when her dreams were coming true. It doesn’t _matter_ that she can feel the warm breeze through her hair and smell the faint hint of cologne, it doesn’t _matter_ that she would give anything to relive that night. None of it can happen, so none of it matters.

She hadn’t checked the name of the gallery but suddenly the realization dawns that this is _his_ painting, _his_ gallery. And no matter how much her heart suddenly feels like it’s breaking all over again, there’s no mistaking the joy that comes from realizing that he got his dream too. His own gallery, away from the pressures of his family, a place to display his art…

He was so talented, she’d always thought so. And here, privately, with no one else around, she allows herself to cry a little, partly in pain, but mostly in quiet relief that no matter how much it had hurt to walk away from each other, at least they got what they dreamed of.

Still, it hurt.

The sound of footsteps reminds her that she isn’t the only one admiring art tonight. Quickly she pulled her compact from her clutch, checking to see that her eyeliner hadn’t smudged terribly. It was passable, but she just has to make it to the restroom to fix herself up before the tabloids are selling the story of Caroline Forbes breaking down in art galleries. _So_ not what she needs.

Head down, she turns on her heel and makes for the corridor where the restrooms are but she’s stopped by a warm body right in front of her.

“Sorry,” she mutters, but before she can dart off, a hand wraps around her wrist, keeping her there. She hasn’t been taking boxing classes for nothing and is ready to deliver a mean right hook but before she can, she gets a proper look at who’s standing right in front of her.

“Hello Caroline. **”**

**_xxx_ **

_“Why are you even doing this?!”  she asked him in disbelief. “I thought you hated the idea of working with your brothers, now it’s the dream job?”_

_Klaus barely suppressed a snarl, throwing back the glass of bourbon._ _“I was doing this for_ you! _” he yelled. “I heard you, talking to your mother.”_

_“What does that have to do with anything?”_

_“Forgive me for trying to find stability.”_

_Caroline shook her head, not understanding what he was saying. She crossed the space of his living room, cupping his jaw and forcing him to look at her._ _“Klaus, if you want ‘stability’ that’s fine. But what about your dream? Owning your own gallery?”_

_“We all have to grow up sometime,” he replied, not even bothering to hide the bitterness in his tone._

_Caroline stepped away from him, not sure how to help. She couldn_ _’t find the man she loved, the one who had always believed in the inevitably of their dreams coming true. That man was buried under a hard layer of cynicism, and that broke her heart more than any petty fight could._

_“Look…I need to go. My play opens tomorrow. You’ll…you’ll be there?”_

_No matter how angry they both were, over things they couldn_ _’t really explain, he nodded ever so slightly. Caroline took his reassurance with her as she quietly left. She took it with her right up to the point when the lights came up on a scarcely filled house and he wasn’t there in his reserved seat in the front row._

 _They didn_ _’t know it, but that moment was when Caroline Forbes had decided that she had no talent and every bit of Klaus’s reassurances meant nothing._

**_xxx_ **

“Klaus! What—what are you doing here?”

Klaus smirks, and it’s painfully familiar. His eyes light up the same way, the dimples on his cheeks beg to be kissed. Caroline just about restrains herself as she reminds herself that years have passed since they last spoke and she’s here with another man.

(Tyler feels like such a non-entity though, as unfair as that is. But in the face of Klaus and all that they had, every relationship she’s had in the past five years has felt hollow.)

“This is my gallery,” Klaus explains, confirming her suspicions. He swallows thickly and Caroline tries not to focus on the bob of his Adam’s apple, the neck where she’s buried her face more than once.

“I like your paintings,” she says quietly.

Klaus glances over her shoulder, at the painting inspired by the site of their first kiss. He’d painted that particular piece not long after she’d left to shoot her first film in Paris, and it had been an attempt at getting the memory committed to canvas before he forgot. There was no fear of that however, that night, and every night with Caroline was seared into his brain, never to be forgotten.

“I loved spending time up there.” _With you,_ are the words that hang unspoken but Klaus and Caroline feel the weight of them all the same.

“I’m so glad,” Caroline starts, not sure how to continue. But this is Klaus, he’s always demanded honesty and it was so easy to be open with him. So Caroline sucks in a breath and takes the plunge. “I’m so glad you got it. The gallery I mean. This place is amazing, you deserve it.”

Klaus’s faces splits into a wide grin as he looks her over. “And you love, taking the screen by storm. I’ve heard that you’re an Oscar favourite this year.”

Caroline ducks her head shyly, unsure how to deal with the praise. They’ve both gotten everything they wanted from life, but the pain of ‘what-if’ between them hung like a dark cloud. Caroline can see it vividly, the life that they might have had together if it had managed to work out somehow.

He would’ve stuck with painting instead of going to work in his family’s law firm. He would’ve been in the audience at the play where the casting director had discovered her, he would’ve come with her to Paris and they would’ve held hands along the Seine and danced the nights away. One night, he would’ve sunk down on one knee and presented her with a ring and she would’ve thrown her arms around him and cried ‘yes’ over and over and over.

They would’ve come back to LA together and she would’ve gotten the roles she dreamed of. They would’ve started a family and taken a kid with her eyes and his curls up to the hills where they spent countless nights.

But even in the glossy technicolour daydream that flies through her head, Caroline knows it was never meant to be. Working at his family’s firm might have been akin to selling his soul, but it gave Klaus the capital he needed to open his gallery, and Caroline couldn’t begrudge him his success. Still…it hurt, thinking of could’ve been.

“I should go,” Caroline chokes out, suddenly overwhelmed, but before she can make her escape, Klaus’s grip on her wrist tightens.

“Love, if you have time, perhaps we should —”

“I’m here with someone else,” Caroline blurts out and hates the way his face falls. Slowly, he lets go of her and takes a step away. “I’m sorry,” is what she whispers before she runs.

**_xxx_ **

_The incessant knocking wasn_ _’t going to stop anytime soon and Caroline wrenched the door open with way more force than was necessary, ready to lay into whomever was making this much noise at two in the morning before she registered who was standing there._

_“Klaus?! What the hell are you doing here?” There are a million questions going through her head, like how the hell he managed to show up outside her mother’s house in Virginia, but none of that matters really. She’s still so angry at him for not being there, for choosing his job over her no matter how much he insisted that he had no choice. Maybe it was a little unfair, but it was compounded with the weight of her play’s failure and she’d decided to leave it all behind, her dreams and her love. A clean break was easiest._

_Klaus held up a hand to stop the door from slamming in her face._ _“Do you remember the casting director, Rose? The one you invited to your play?”_

 _Caroline nodded her head wearily, even as Klaus grinned._ _“She called for you, sweetheart. She loved your performance and wants to call you in for an audition.”_

 _A few weeks ago and the news would_ _’ve made her heart soar, but Caroline was too jaded now. “I need to grow up,” she said bitterly. “I just— I can’t go through another rejection.”_

_“You’re scared,” Klaus said, eyes blazing. “You’re running and that’s not the Caroline I know.”_

_“The Caroline you know has better things to do than get her heart broken again!”_

_Klaus sighed, he knew he was culpable for a big part of that heartbreak. Wordlessly he reached into his jacked and handed her a slip of paper._ _“That’s ticket for a flight to LA tomorrow. I’ll be at the airport. Be there or don’t, but don’t—don’t throw it all away. Please.”_

**_xxx_ **

The air is warm, the sky is a beautiful indigo. The spot is unchanged, despite how nothing stays the same in this city. The people will have new faces, the restaurants will change hands, the clubs will go through dozens of changes, but this particular spot in the Hollywood hills with a perfect view of LA will always stay the same.

“You still driving this thing?”

Klaus started, twisting his head to see who was coming up next to his car. Caroline doesn’t even hesitate before jumping into the passenger seat, smiling at him widely.

“How did you get up here?”

“I hiked it,” Caroline says with a shrug. “It’s not hard. Gave me some time to think.”

Hiking the hills in the early hours of the day is something she can pass off as all part of her acting method, and honestly Caroline doesn’t even care if anyone sees her. There’s one opinion that mean so much more to her.

“And what were you thinking about?” Klaus asks carefully.

“About why we couldn’t work,” Caroline says bluntly, meeting his stare. It’s the bravest she’s been in a while, but since she ran last night, the look on his face is all she can think of.”

“And what conclusions have you come to?” Klaus asks, the slightest note of hope in his voice.

Caroline stares out at the city that looks like a sea of stars in front of them. “We  couldn’t work then. We’d put too much blood, sweat and tears into our dreams, we deserved to give that a real shot, above anything else.” She chances a look at Klaus and his face is resigned. He came to the same conclusion then, no matter how much it hurt. It was the truth.

“You had to stay here and I had to leave and we both got everything we wanted,” Caroline says, laying out the obvious. It sounds like she’s trying too hard to justify a lot of heartbreak, but no one said having it all came easy. “But I’ve been thinking…

“Oh?”

“We couldn’t make it work then. What if we could make it work now?”

Theer’s a beat of perfect silence as Klaus looks her over in disbelief. “Sweetheart, what are you saying?”

In response, just as the sun peaks over the hills, Caroline leans over and cups his jaw, pressing a soft kiss to his lips, every bit of love she felt for him long ago crashing over her and reminding her why they first fell in love in the first place.

When they pull away, Klaus is staring at her with equal parts lust and love. “The man you were with—”

“We’re over.”

It’s all he needs to hear before he captures her lips again, just as the sun breaks the horizon. Five years are behind them, but this was Los Angeles. It was time to look forward.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed! Have a great 2017!


End file.
